name of Godliness as the Apostle divides the several Duties of Religion into three parts living soberly righteously and godlily in this present World And the proper Notion of worshipping God is to honour him all the several Acts of Worship honour God as they signify our great sense and devout acknowledgment of his Being Power and Providence of the Excellencies and Perfections of his Nature our dependence on him submission to him trust and affiance in him such as are great and venerable apprehensions of God Prayers Praises Thanksgivings and the like Now every Man must acknowledg that Honour is always the greater the more publick it is That he who has great and admiring Thoughts of God and publishes this to the World in the most solemn manner honours God a great deal more than he who keeps these Thoughts to himself and praises God so privately that no Man knows it but himself The Prophet David resolves to make his Praises of God as publick as he could I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee And exhorts others to exalt him in the Congregation of the People and praise him in the Assemblies of the Elders Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole Heart in the Assembly of the Upright and in the Congregation And besides this we may consider that there are two parts of Worship the Worship of the Mind which consists in honouring God with devout and pious Affections in bowing our Souls before him and the external and visible expressions and significations of this Honour which is external and visible Worship such as praying and praising God with an audible Voice falling down on the ground kneeling uncovering the Head and those other outward Expressions of Devotion which signify the humble and devout Affections of the mind now tho these external signs of Honour may and ought to be used in Private and Closet Devotions so it be with due caution not to make them publick which is a piece of Pharisaical Hypocrisy yet the proper use of them is in publick Acts of Worship to testify our concurrence and agreement with other devout Persons in the same Acts of Worship for God knows our Thoughts and Affections and therefore needs not to be acquainted with our Desires by cloathing them with words he hears the most silent breathings of our Souls and therefore needs not that we should speak to him in an audible Voice he sees the bending of our Souls and the most humble submission and prostration of our Minds and needs not be informed of this by bending or bowing our Bodies to him but Men cannot see this but by external signs nor join in the same Petitions and Praises without words so audibly pronounced that all present may hear them and therefore those Scriptures which require these external Signs of Worship suppose that this Worship must be publick too that we must meet together to offer up our united Prayers and Thanksgivings to God And accordingly we find that all the Psalms of David were penned for publick Worship for the use of the Temple and delivered to the Master of Musick to be sung as publick Hymns of Prayer or Thanksgiving And if we enquire into the fundamental Reasons of Worship we shall find our Obligations much more strong to publick than to private Worship tho that be our Duty also especially when we want such publick Opportunities The natural Reason of worshipping God is that he is the most excellent and perfect Being the great and universal Parent and Benefactor and the Soveraign Lord and Judg of the World for it becomes us to acknowledg and adore him who is our Maker in whom we live move and have our being who feeds and cloaths us who defends us from Evil who encompasseth us with his loving kindness and tender mercies and therefore these are the Subjects of most of those Forms of Worship Prayer and Thanksgiving which we find recorded in Scripture especially in the Writings of the Old Testament Now all this is a more cogent Reason for publick than for private Worship for though we are bound to acknowledg those particular Favours and Blessings which God hath bestowed on us which is the foundation of private Worship yet God is not so much to be considered a private as a publick Benefactor as an universal Parent and soveraign Lord and therefore must be worshipped as a publick Benefactor that is with publick Worship for there is no visible Worship of God as the Supream Lord of the World unless it be publick And since all Mankind are God's Creatures and the Subjects of his Care and Providence and are every one of them bound to worship the same God natural Reason will inform us that we ought all to join in the same acts of Worship which gives a greater awe and solemnity to it for we cannot think that Man was made a sociable Creature for every thing else but only for Acts of Worship which is his highest End and greatest Perfection and therefore if Men unite themselves into Societies for Civil Order and Government it is as highly reasonable that they should unite for Religious Worship unless we think that Bodies Politick Kingdoms and Common-wealths are not bound to worship God as every particular Person is tho it be an old Maxim of Government That Religion is the surest Bond and Cement of Civil Societies Especially when we consider that the greatest Blessings we are to praise God for are such as are bestowed on us in common with others or all Mankind such as the influences of Heaven and the fruitfulness of the Earth the blessing of Peace and Plenty deliverance from Enemies the advantages of good Government and all other National Mercies and above all the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ so that God is defrauded of his Glory if our Acknowledgments be not as publick as his Blessings are For private Praises are not just Returns nor due Acknowledgment of publick Mercies And therefore when the Psalmist celebrates the publick Mercies of God he invites all Israel to join in his Praises Praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new Song and his praise in the Congregation of Saints Let Israel rejoice in him that made him let the Children of Zion be joyful in their King And all this is confirmed by the universal practice of Mankind who tho they differed in the Objects and Nature of their Worship yet all agreed in making their Worship publick and solemn and such an universal Consent is no less than the Voice of Nature Secondly Let us now consider what that Worship is which God himself instituted and ordained and I shall at present instance in the Jewish Worship which was typical also of the Christian. Now it is so evident that every part of the Jewish Worship which God commanded by Moses was of a publick Nature and to be performed in a publick manner
into them by degrees as they are able to bear it There is milk for babes and meat for strong men to understand the first principles of Christian knowledge is necessary to teach them to understand a Sermon which commonly supposes some competent knowledge in the principles of Christianity and the true reason why so few men understand Sermons or get any good by them is because they never well understood their Catechism The want of this careful instruction of Youth makes them so unstable and uncertain in their Religion when they come to be men This makes so many different Opinions and Sects of Religion that they are turned aside with every wind of doctrine that they are taken with every new phrase that they fall into such monstrous errors so destructive to the fundamentals of Christian faith for it is impossible a house should stand which has no foundation So that all men must acknowledge that it is very necessary that Children and Youth should be carefully instructed in the fundamental principles of Religion 2. I cannot suppose neither that any considering men should think there is no need of the assistance of the Ministers of Religion for the instruction of Youth this indeed is a duty which every Parent and Master of a Family is concerned in to instruct those who are under their care in the knowledge and fear of God but if they think their Minister able to instruct themselvs they cannot but think it reasonable to desire his assistance to instruct their Children They call in the assistance of men expert and skilful in several Arts to teach them those Arts which they profess though they have some skill themselves in them and there is nothing of such moment to them and nothing it may be more difficult than to be thoroughly instructed in Religion It requires great skill and such as every Learned Rabbi is not Master of to fit the principles of Christian knowledge to the capacity of Children and Youth The Articles of the Christian Faith contain the highest and most Seraphical Speculations that ever were taught by any Philosophy such as the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God who was conceived in the womb of a pure Virgin and came into the world in our nature and wrought miracles and dyed as a Sacrifice for sin and rose again from the dead and is now ascended up into Heaven in our nature and invested with great power and glory having all power given to him both in heaven and in earth a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father That when these earthly bodies shall dye and rot in the grave they shall be raised again at the last day incorruptible and glorious These are great sublime stupendious Mysteries and it requires no small skill to know how to teach such great and mysterious Doctrines to Children and Youth that they may so by degrees discover these Mysteries as neither to blind nor dazle their eyes with their brightness and lustre nor yet to remain wholly ignorant of them The thorough knowledge of Christianity is not so easily attained as some men imagine nor is every one who knows something himself fit to be a Teacher of others And therefore though I would earnestly exhort you all to use the best skill you have to instruct your Children and Servants yet this is no reason to withdraw them from publick instructions nor can any man who understands his Religion think he discharges his duty to God and the Church meerly by his private instruction of his family when he neglects or refuses to bring them to publick instructions 3. For he must consider that his Children and Servants who are baptized are members of the Christian Church and therefore ought to be subject to the instructions and discipline of it as far as their age and capacity will permit They do not only belong to his private care but to the publick care of the Church who is to provide for the instruction of her Children and to deny the Church liberty to instruct her Children or not to interpose their own authority to make them submit to it is to withdraw their Children from the Communion of the Church after a solemn dedication of them to God No good man can with patience think of being guilty of so great a sin which is a kind of Sacriledge as it respects God a degree of Schism from the Church and very injurious to his Childrens souls Especially considering that there is a more peculiar blessing attends the publick instructions of the Church for the same reason that God prefers publick before private Worship and is more peculiarly present in Christian Assemblies than in the families of private Christians and blesses the publick administrations of his Word before private counsels 4. Which may further convince us that the publick Catechizing of Children and Youth is not needless whatever good instructions they may have at home for besides what I have already observed that God does more peculiarly bless publick Institutions there are several advantages in it which I shall briefly represent 1. This will make them more careful to improve in knowledge when they know they must give an account of such improvements to the publick Congregations there will be an emulation between Youth who shall give the most manly and reasonable account of their faith and as they grow in years they will be ashamed to continue Children in understanding we see the effects of this shame and emulation in other matters and when it may be improved to such admirable advantage in this case if there were nothing more to recommend it it were a sufficient reason to all good men who desire the improvement and increase of Christian knowledge in the World to encourage and promote it 2. By this means the Church may take notice of the improvement of Youth in Christian knowledge which is necessary to their regular admission to higher acts of Communion Those who are baptized when they are Children ought not regularly to be admitted to the Lords Supper till they have been confirmed and to qualifie them for Confirmation it is necessary they should in some competent measure understand their Religion and be able to give a reasonable account of their faith and though indeed the Minister and Bishop may be satisfied in this by private examinations yet this is no satisfaction to the Congregation with whom they are to communicate any otherwise than as they relye upon the authority of their Minister but such young men will be received with a more universal applause and sincere joy to the Table of our Lord who have given such publick testimony of their improvements in Christian knowledge 3. Another advantage is that this trains up Children and Youth in a just respect
is capable of this Work whence again we may conclude that God made Man for his peculiar Service and Glory unless we can imagine that God would make a World and place no Creature in it whose proper Business it should be to know and worship his Wise Maker and Bountiful Lord. Man is the Priest of Nature who offers up the Praises and Thanksgivings of the whole Creation to God Thus you see that Religious Worship is a natural Debt which we owe to God and that God does expect and exact the Paiment of it from us We may certainly conclude from hence that he expects we should live according to the most perfect Constitution of our Natures This is the natural Rule of our Actions to serve the Ends for which we were made for God did not make such and such Natures for nothing either to be unimployed or imployed to other or to less and meaner purposes than they were designed for And besides this we have frequent and express Commands to worship God in that Revelation he hath made to us of his Will The Scripture is so full of Precepts Exhortations and Reproofs about this Matter that I need not spend time to prove so acknowledged a Truth But from the whole of what I have now discoursed we may safely conclude the great Evil of Irreligion as being the highest injustice to our Maker and Soveraign Lord. Thirdly The great Evil of Irreligion of denying or neglecting the Worship of God appears in this That it is the most sordid Ingratitude Now Ingratitude is Injustice too but it is Injustice to a Benefactor that is it consists in violating all those Obligations which Goodness and Kindness has laid upon us as Injustice properly so called consists in breaking the Rules of Natural or Civil Right For Mankind generally accounts the Obligation to return a kindness as strong and necessary as to pay a Debt and nothing is more infamous among Men than an ungrateful Person for as Goodness is a greater Perfection than strict Justice so Ingratitude must needs be a more hateful Vice than bare Injustice because it is opposite to the greatest Good As Goodness is the greatest Glory and Perfection of Humane Nature so Ingratitude must needs be the greatest Infamy and Reproach because it is at the greatest distance from Goodness Now among Men Injustice and Ingratitude may be separated Men may be unjust but not ungrateful and they may be ungrateful and not unjust according to the strict Notion of Injustice for Men may wrong and injure those who never did them any kindness and that is Injustice without Ingratitude and they may neglect to make decent Acknowledgments and Returns of Kindness without injuring their Friends in any of their Natural or Civil Rights and that is Ingratitude without Injustice But now it is impossible to be unjust to God without being ungrateful too because he is not only our Natural Lord but our great Benefactor and those very things which give him a natural Right to our Worship and Obedience do not only lay on us the Obligations of Justice but of Gratitude to worship him He made us and this gives him a natural Right to our Worship because he is our Natural Lord we are intirely his and owe our selves and all we have and all we can do to him and this makes it very unjust to deny or neglect his Worship But then we must consider that if we love our Selves and our Being and those Advantages of Happiness which Being makes us capable of then much more we are obliged in gratitude to praise and adore that God who gave us our Being for though possibly some will not allow it proper to say that God was good to us before we had a Being yet he was very good in making us and therefore it is high ingratitude as well as injustice in Creatures not to praise and glorify their Maker Thus that Divine and Heaven-born Mind and those noble and excellent Faculties of Soul which God hath bestowed on us as they may make us capable of knowing and worshipping God so make Religious Worship a natural piece of Justice and if we value the excellency of our Natures and think it any advantage to be made so noble an Order of Beings Gratitude as well as Justice obliges us to employ all the Faculties of our Souls for that high and noble End for which they were made that is to know and love and admire and worship God the greatest and the best Being and the most perfect Object of our Minds It is Ingratitude as well as Injustice to our Maker to debase our Natures to make them stoop to low mean and vile Things to inherit the Curse of the Serpent to crawl upon their Bellies and lick up the Dust of the Earth when they were made to aspire towards Heaven to unite themselves to God the Fountain of Life and Being and to live in the Love and Contemplation of him The like may be said with reference to that good Providence of God which maintains and upholds us in Being and provides all Necessaries for us and defends us from all unseen Mischiefs both Justice and Gratitude require us to praise and adore so great and constant a Benefactor These are all Expressions both of the Natural Justice and Bounty of our Wise Maker and therefore lay a mixed Obligation on us of Justice and Gratitude God was under no Antecedent Obligation but his own Will and Goodness to make a World but if he did resolve to make one he was under the Obligations of his own Wisdom and Justice and Goodness to make every Creature perfect in its kind and fitted to attain the end of its Nature and to make some Creatures for great and noble Ends and consequently to bestow very noble and excellent Natures on them and therefore there being a mixture of Justice and Goodness in God's making and governing the World no wonder that it lays a mixt Obligation on us too of Justice and Gratitude But there is another manifestation of God's Goodness in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ which is a Work of such pure and unmixt Grace and Goodness that it is all Goodness and nothing but Goodness Innocent Creatures may challenge a natural Right in the Care and Protection and Bounty of their Maker but a Traitor a Rebel against the Majesty of Heaven an Apostate Wretch who has abused the Bounty and Goodness of his Creator can challenge no right to those common Blessings which God bestows upon his Creatures so that he should cause the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall on them and therefore since Sin entred into the World even those External and Temporal good Things which Sinners enjoy are wholly owing to the Goodness and Mercy of God and accordingly our Obligations to Gratitude and Thankfulness are so much the stronger and our Ingratitude in neglecting the Worship of God the more heinous and provoking But much less can such
call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in Truth He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and will save them The Lord preserveth all them that love him but the wicked will he destroy Where those who love God are those who pray unto him and therefore the wicked whom God will destroy are those who do not pray to him who neglect or despise his Worship whence it is the Psalmist describes God that he is One that heareth Prayers O thou that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For indeed it is not reasonable to expect that God should bestow those Blessings and Deliverances on us which we do not think worth asking or will not own him to have the disposal of those who will not pray for those good Things they want will not bless God for giving them and no wise Man thinks it prudent to place his Favours where they shall meet with no return which is like burying good Seed in a barren Soyl that deceives the expectation of the Husbandman God indeed being the Maker of the World takes care of all his Creatures but then he expects that reasonable Creatures should beg the protection and provisions of his Providence because this is an excellent Instrument of Government as it keeps Man-kind under a constant sense of his Power and Providence and in a constant dependence on him Those who expect all good Things from God dare not provoke him to anger by the breach of his Laws Men are naturally ashamed of approaching the Presence of God when they are conscious to themselves of any great Crime but sneak and hide themselves as Children do when they have displeased their Parents and dare not ask any kindness till they have first obtained their Pardon which makes it highly reasonable and necessary for God to discountenance Irreligion by casting off the care of such Men who refuse to worship him It is true very many Irreligious Men do thrive in this World and arrive to great Estates and to great Honours for God does not make such an exact difference between good and bad Men in this Life as he will do in the World to come and can serve the Ends of his Providence in the prosperity of bad Men. But yet there is a vast difference between God's permitting the prosperity of bad Men and that constant Providence which watches over good Men. Bad Men may advance themselves by Injustice Oppression and Perjury but they are not advanced by the Blessing but by the Permission of God for God never blesses any wicked Arts and therefore such Mens Prosperity is very uncertain and as tottering as the Thrones of Usurpers for though they have a good Title with respect to Men yet they are but Usurpers with respect to God and therefore are tumbled down again at his pleasure but the only sure way of thriving in the World is by God's Blessing these are the only lasting and durable Riches and Honours which are free from such Vexations and Troubles Fears and Disappointments which attend on unjust Possessions as the Wise Man tells us The Blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it The sum is this It is possible for Irreligious Men to enjoy great prosperity without God's Blessing and those who like this way may take it but it is a very uncertain and a very slippery way it often ends in Poverty and Contempt or leads to the Gallows or Men lose their standing when they are almost got up to the top of the Precipice and they tumble down faster than ever they got up But those who desire God should take care of them must pray to him and worship him for as St. Iames told those he writ to Ye have not because ye ask not Some bad Men are for awhile prosperous but a hundred for one are miserable and no Man can be secure from Misery but in the Protection of God Secondly There is a much greater Danger than this in Irreligion and that is The loss of our Souls the loss of Eternal Happiness and the miseries of an Eternal Death now it is Godliness which hath the promise of this Life and of that which is to come and the Grace of God which brings Salvation that is the Gospel of Christ which contains the Promises of eternal Life hath appeared unto all Men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World These are the Conditions of Eternal Life without performing which we shall never see God but the intemperate unrighteous ungodly Men shall be condemned to the punishment of Devils to outward darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore For Godliness which consists in such a constant sense of God as expresses it self in all Acts of Homage Worship and Obedience is the only vital Principle of Religion though Men have a great many very good Qualities and sociable Vertues though they are modest and temperate just in their Dealings pitiful to the Poor of a liberal and generous Spirit in promoting good Designs very affable courteous and obliging in their Conversations yet if they have no sense of God as these Men have not who neglect his Worship all this is no part of Religion but owing to natural Temper and good Breeding or humane Policy or such other Causes as may make Men good Neighbours and Citizens but cannot make them good Christians They may reap some Temporal Rewards of these Vertues but they cannot carry them to Heaven for indeed such Men are not qualified for the Work and the happiness of Heaven which is to know and love and admire and praise the great Maker and Redeemer of the World which no Man can do who hath not a quick and prevailing sense of his Excellencies and Perfections And how intolerable would it be for such Men to keep an Eternal Sabbath in Heaven to worship God and sing his Praises day and Night for ever and ever who think it lost time and a dry insipid wearisom thing to worship God here on Earth but they need not fear that Penance for they shall never be troubled with it None shall be received into Heaven but those who by the constant Exercises of Devotion on Earth have spiritualized their Minds and made Religion in some measure their Happiness as well as their Work and Duty And because there are a sort of inconsiderate Men who think to grow very religious and to repent of all their Sins before they die and thereby prevent the danger of Eternal Damnation I would desire them to consider Thirdly That the great Danger of Irreligion of an habitual neglect of God's Worship is That it lets loose the Reins to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may become Christians and enter into our Society and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And therefore the Sacrament of Baptism is our admission into the Christian Church that is gives a right to all the Priviledges of Christian Communion for we are baptized into one Body and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is expresly called the Communion it is that common Table which all Christians have a right to The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread It is essential to the nature of the Lord's Supper that it is a common Feast of which all Christians partake for it signifies not only our Union to Christ but our Union to one another in the same Body for which Reason the Reformed Churches universally condemn the private Masses of the Church of Rome where the Priest receives by himself and truly private Devotions when they thrust out publick Worship are much of the same nature So that the very Institution of a Church the Example of the Primitive Christians and those Sacraments of our Religion which our Saviour has instituted as the Badges of Christianity and the Conveyances of Spiritual Life and Grace may convince us how necessary Christian Communion and Publick Worship is if we will be the Disciples of Christ and we are expresly commanded by the Writer to the Hebrews Not to forsake the assembling of our selves together But we may consider farther that Christ has instituted an Evangelical Priesthood the publick Ministers of Religion whom he has commanded to instruct his Church to feed his Flock to pray for his People and to bless in his Name to whom he has committed the Power of the Keys to let in or to shut out of the Church Now what use could there be for publick Ministers unless publick Worship were a great and necessary Duty If it were so indifferent a thing whether Christians frequent the Religious Assemblies and continue in their Doctrine and Fellowship breaking Bread and Prayers it does not seem worth the while to have invested Men with such Power and Authority which is of so little use especially since Christianity is so much known and so far spread in the World whereas our Saviour promises to be with his Apostles unto the end of the World which could not be meant of the Persons of the Apostles for they are long since dead but of their Successors who retain their Office and Power as far as is necessary to the present state of the Church And the force of this Argument from the Apostolical Office will be better understood if we consider wherein the Power of the Keys consists which Christ committed to St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles or what is the true ancient Discipline of the Christian Church Now the Power of the Church which is truly Spiritual consists only in letting into the Church or shutting out The admission into the Church is by administring Baptism which they are made the external Judges of who are fit to be received into the Church by Baptism and who not shutting out of the Church is by exercising Censures upon Offenders which consists only in this in removing such Men from Christian Communion either in part or wholly for a time or for ever according to the severity of the ancient Discipline Some were not permitted to come into the Christian Assemblies but lay at the door lamenting their wickedness and begging their Prayers Others were admitted to publick Instructions but not to the Communion of Prayers or at least if they were admitted to the Prayers of the Catechumens those who were publickly instructed and catechised but not yet baptized were not allowed to be present at the Prayers of the Faithful Others were admitted to Prayers but not to the Supper of the Lord. Now all this supposes that Christian Communion is not only a necessary Duty but a great Priviledg since they had no other way of punishing Offenders but by denying them the liberty of Worship in their Assemblies but what would those Men value Church-Censures who make so slight of publick Worship as daily to excommunicate themselves Certainly these Men are greatly mistaken or else the very Office and Authority of an Apostle is a very inconsiderable thing and that dreadful Sentence of Excommunication which was so formidable in the Ancient Church is a very innocent and harmless thing since Men may as well worship God alone as in Christian Assemblies and that they might do when excommunicated or shut out of Christian Assemblies And I observe farther That our Saviour requires of us the publick profession of his Name and Worship which necessarily includes publick Worship Whosoever therefore shall confess me before Men him will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven To confess Christ is to own him for our Lord and Saviour not only in words tho too many such there are whom our Saviour will not own will not confess before his Father which is in Heaven but by paying him such publick Homage and Worship as is a visible demonstration that we do own him for our Lord. For thus to confess Christ signifies With the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved The Christian Church was to be a Visible Society like a City that is set on a Hill or like a Candle placed in a Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House But the Church can never be visibly distinguished from the rest of the World without the publick and visible exercise of Religion and therefore our Saviour exhorts his Disciples Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven which must refer to all parts of Religion and therefore includes Acts of Worship as well as Acts of Mercy and Charity To conclude this Argument It is the acknowledged Duty of a Christian Prince to take care to encourage and propagate true Religion in his Dominions which can never be done without encouraging publick Worship correcting publick Abuses and punishing the neglect or profanation of it for if Mens Religion be confined to their Closets no Man can possibly tell what Religion they are of they may be Pagans Mahometans Papists or Infidels and no Man the wiser if they can but keep their own counsel And therefore if it be the Duty of Magistrates to encourage and reform Religion and yet nothing can fall within his cognizance or under his care but what is publick it is easy to conclude That publick Worship which is the Care of
But I would desire such Men to consider First That this Notion of a purer Church and purer Ordinances varies with every Man's fancy as having no Foundation in Scripture Reason or Antiquity when you distinguish a purer Church from a pure Church I would desire to know what greater degree of purity they find in a Presbyterian or Independent Conventicle than in our Parochial Churches If this Purity consists in Doctrine Government or Worship that Doctrine and Government which is most Ancient and most Apostolical is purer than some novel and upstart Opinions Church Forms and Models and that Worship which retains all the Institutions of Christ and administers them with the greatest order and decency and most to Christian Edification is as pure a Worship as that which is slovenly and unbecoming the gravity and solemnity of Divine Worship That Church wherein Christians may enjoy all the means and conveyances of Grace without any corrupt Mixtures to spoil their Vertue and Efficacy is a pure Church such a Church wherein a Christian may communicate without doing any injury to his Soul is a pure Church and has all the degrees of purity which is necessary to External Communion If by a purer Communion they mean only the Communion of better Men and of greater Saints they ought to consider that it is impossible to exclude Hypocrites out of any Church unless they pretend to a Gift of discerning Spirits nor is it fit they should be excluded while they are not openly scandalous for to shut such Men out of the Church deprives them of the Means of Grace and all hopes of proving better Men. And I hope Christian Communion is not confined to any single Congregation but every good Christian who lives in the Communion of the Church enjoys the Communion of Saints in all the World is a Member of the same Body which consists of all the true Disciples of Christ. Nay I would desire them to consider that the Glory of the Christian Communion is this That our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ with the glorious and triumphant Church in Heaven as well as with the Church Militant on Earth But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudg of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel This is the Church-Fellowship which those enjoy who live in Communion with the Universal Church and which Schismaticks have no right to and those who think to meet with better Company at a Conventicle let them take it But must not the Christian Church consist of all ranks and degrees of Christians as our natural Body does of several sorts of Members of different honour and worth and is it fitting for strong and well-grown Christians to separate from the weak and imperfect as if the eye should separate from the Body as despising the Communion of the Foot and yet if St. Paul says true that Schism is a work of the Flesh and the sign of carnal Men we have no reason to look for the best Christians in Schismatical Churches But secondly it was never till of late days thought lawful to separate from a lawful Communion tho as the state of the Church in this World is it were subject to some defects and therefore the Brownists who separated from the Church of England pretended that her Worship and Government was Unlawful Idolatrous and Antichristian and the old Nonconformists who though they could not conform as Ministers yet very religiously conformed as Lay-men both in Prayers and Sacraments condemned this Schism and proved that Communion with the Church of England was lawful and therefore Separation was sinful and I dare challenge any Man to shew me from the first beginnings of Christianity that ever it was thought lawful to separate from a Church where we might communicate without sin And thirdly let these Men consider that this Notion of separating from a lawful Communion for a purer Communion lays the foundation of eternal Schisms for there being no certain rule for the degrees of this Purity every Man according to his own fancy may refine for ever Fourthly If they do indeed think the Communion of the Church of England to be unlawful and sinful I would desire them to enquire how they came at first to think so for this is a very material Enquiry if Men desire to know their honesty and sincerity in this Matter for if Men are at first by their own fault ensnared in an Error and drawn into Schism how firmly soever afterwards they believe their Separation to be lawful and necessary it will not excuse them It is impossible to know all the several ways whereby Men come at first to be engaged in Schism but I shall take notice of some few which seem to be most common Such are these 1. Education 2. Lightness and giddiness of Mind 3. Some distast at Publick Affairs 4. Some quarrel with the Ministers of Religion 5. Interest or the Perswasion of Friends 1. Education when Men have been nursed up in Schism from their infancy and have been taught to despise the Common Prayer before they could read and to call the Church Antichrist and the Ministers of it Baal's Priests as soon as they could speak Now it must be acknowledged that this is the most pitiable case and the fairest Excuse and Apology that can be made for any Man for we all know what the power of Education is and how hard it is to deliver our minds from the first Impressions of Childhood and Youth but yet this will not excuse a Man when he has attained to Years of discretion and has opportunities of being better informed for if it would Pagans Mahometans and Papists who labour under the same prejudices of Education have the same excuse We must offer up to God a reasonable Service and that requires the exercise of our Reason in the choice of our Religion as well as in the discharge of Religious Duties Nay Papists Mahometans and Pagans have a better excuse upon this account than our Dissenters because their Prejudices may reasonably be thought more invincible as will appear if we briefly consider three or four things First That theirs is the Religion of their Country which they have been in quiet possession of for many Ages and thus that reverence they pay to the wisdom and memory of their Ancestors adds to the prejudices of their Education whereas every one knows that this present Schism and the pretences whereon it is founded are but late Innovations a Novelty which is not yet grey-headed And tho Antiquity in it self considered is no Argument for an ancient Error nor Novelty any
Law of Moses For we may observe that the Apostles themselves in compliance with the weakness of the believing Jews did use a great many Mosaical Rites only stripping them of their Typical Nature St. Paul was a zealous opposer of Circumcision and yet did not scruple to circumcise Timothy not in token of God's Covenant with Abraham but to prevent Scandal And those Christians who lived at Ierusalem worshipped in the Temple kept their Religious Festivals and observed their Law but no Christian could do this according to the Original Institution of those Laws for that had been to renounce Christianity but they observed them in complyance with the custom of their Nation and to avoid giving offence to believing Jews And if the Apostles might lawfully observe those Jewish Customs when they were freed from their Typical signification it cannot be a Fault to use some such innocent Ceremonies and Circumstances in Worship as are no way prejudicial to the Nature of Christianity If the belief of Christianity made the Observation of those Jewish Ceremonies Innocent which in their own Nature and Original Institution are inconsistent with Christianity as signifying that Christ was not yet come How much more innocent is it to worship God in a white Garment to kneel at the Sacrament and bend our Knee to our Lord at whose Table we eat and to sign our Children with the Sign of the Cross in honour of our crucified Lord and as a visible Profession of a suffering Religion 3. Our Saviour rejects all Superstitious Observances which were not any part of Religious Worship and yet were thought to have an extraordinary Sacredness and Religion in them such as he calls the Traditions of their Elders and charges them with teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men such as washing Cups Platters and Hands before Dinner thus touch not taste not handle not are by St. Paul called the Doctrines and Commandments of Men which refer to their abstaining from certain sorts of Meats and the like So that these Doctrines and Commandments of Men which Christ flings out of his Religion were not any Ceremonies or Circumstances of Worship but some Customs they take up with a great Opinion of their Religion and Merit As the Papists have great numbers of them such as Pilgrimages and Penances c. And St. Paul tells us with respect to such Customs as these That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost that is that Christian Religion does not consist in such sorry things as eating or not eating such and such Meats but Christ expects from us true and sincere Piety as the only thing that can recommend us to God Such Superstitious Customs as these are very different from the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship unless we think it the same thing to hope to merit Heaven by going a Pilgrimage by professing Poverty Celibacy and blind Obedience by abstaining from Flesh in Lent and such kind of vain Superstitions as it is to wear a Surplice in the time of Divine Worship or to receive the Lord's Supper upon our Knees as an external Expression of Devotion not as meritorious Superstitions The Ceremonies of our Church have been often declaimed against under the Notion of the Doctrines and Traditions of Men but it is plain that neither our Saviour nor St. Paul meant any thing like them for they do not speak of any Circumstances or Appendages of Religious Worship but of such arbitrary Superstitions as they turned into formal Acts of Religion The fourth does not much concern our present Argument the difference Christ put between the Substantial and the Instrumental parts of Worship any otherwise than to mind us that we must not look upon any Ceremonies as parts of Worship but a decent manner of performing it That our acceptance with God depends upon nothing that is meerly external but on the Devotion of the Heart and Soul expressed in such becoming Words and Behaviour as may make it visible and exemplary to others and this is exactly the Doctrine of our Church and if any Men think that such external Expressions of Honour will please God without the Worship of the Mind and Spirit they must answer for themselves for she owns no such Principles but takes care to instruct her Children better And methinks this should be no small satisfaction to Mens Minds that the established Worship of our Church has nothing contrary to the nature and design of Christianity from whence it follows that Men may be very good Christians while they live in Communion with our Church and then I doubt they cannot be very good Christians when they forsake it for nothing but an apparent and manifest danger of sin can justify such a Separation 2. But let us now further consider how the Worship of our Church is justified by the Principles of Christianity We do not pretend that there is an express command to pray always by a Form or to institute and appoint significant Ceremonies in the Worship of God but there is enough in the Gospel of our Saviour to justify such Practices as briefly to point to some few things 1. Our Saviour himself taught his Disciples to pray by a Form Our Father which art in Heaven c. And if you will allow that it was lawful for them to pray in these words though you should suppose that they were not always bound to use it it plainly proves that the Christian Religion does not forbid praying by a Form for if it be lawful to pray by a Form even of Divine Institution then a Form as a Form cannot be unlawful 2. Our Saviour has no where prescribed the particular Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet no Religious Action can be performed without some Circumstances or other he has commanded us to pray to God in his Name to commemorate his Death and Passion in his last Supper and has commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost But how oft we must pray and celebrate this Heavenly Feast in what Place in what Posture in what Time he has not told us He has prescribed the Form of words in Baptism but not any one Circumstance and yet it is certain there must be some Circumstances for every Action for the more decent performance and greater solemnity of such mysterious Rites and therefore we may well conclude that our Saviour left all such to the order and direction of his Apostles and their Successors in all Ages as may tend most to the preservation of good Order and the edification of the Church For we must consider the difference between the Law and the Gospel Under the Law the Church was in an Infant State like an Heir under Age which is under Tutors and Governors and therefore every part of that Typical Temple-Worship was exactly framed according to the Pattern in the
name has confined his more peculiar presence and favour to such Assemblies and one great reason of this is that he is pleased with the unity and uniformity of Worship for he hath expresly promised that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them This is the fundamental Charter of Christian Assemblies and the reason of it certainly is stronger the more universal the consent and agreement is for if Christ will be present with two or three who assemble in Christian love and charity and agree to put up the same Petitions to God much more when so many Christian Churches are confederated in the same Worship and offer up the same Prayers and Thanksgivings to God in the same words How powerful will the united Prayers of a whole National Church be to procure those blessings for us which we want For if unity and consent in Worship be so pleasing to God the greater this consent is the more pleasing it must be Especially considering that in this case we have not only the consent and agreement of private Christians in such acts of Worship but are confederated by the publick authority of the Church and therefore such publick Worship has the beauty and advantages of publick Order and Government If the Prayers of a particular Minister of Religion be so prevalent how much more those Prayers which have the stamp of Church Authority which are the Desires and Petitions of the whole Church even when they are offered up by a single Minister which cannot so well be said of any Prayer of his own and if we believe that God is the God of Peace and Order in the Church we cannot but think it very acceptable to him to observe good order in our Religious Worship Did men seriously consider these things they would be soon sensible of the great advantage of such publick Forms of Prayer and prefer the Prayers of the Church before any Prayers of a private composition or any suddain extempore effusions For publick Prayers prescribed by publick Authority and offered up by a publick Minister are alwayes in the Communion of the Church and virtually contain the Desires and Petitions of the whole Church CHAP. IV. Concerning the publick Administration of Baptism ANother great miscarriage of those who live in the Communion of our Church concerns the administration of Baptism Publick Baptism is now very much grown out of fashion most people look upon it as a very needless and troublesome Ceremony to carry their Children to the publick Congregation there to be solemnly admitted by Baptism into the fellowship of Christs Church They think it may be as well done in a private Chamber as soon as the Child is born with little company and with little noise As prevailing as this custom now is it is of a very late date even in this Church It seems to owe its original to the disputes about Ceremonies for when some men scrupled God-Fathers and God-Mothers and the use of the Sign of the Cross to avoid this they baptized their Children privately at home without either when they could meet with such a conscientious Conformist as could dispense with his Rule And when the Church of England was pulled down and the use of the Liturgy and Ceremonies forbid those who still retained their reverence and obedience to the Constitutions of the Church and would not partake in a prevailing Schism were forced to retire into private too and to baptize their Children at home and it is a hard thing to break a custome upon what occasion soever it was at first begun That which necessity occasioned is continued by some as a piece of State by others to save charge and trouble which might be much better saved by publick Baptism by others out of softness and tenderness a kind and indulgent Mother dares not expose a young Infant to the cold Air unless it be to send it to nurse I could never hear any thing pleaded for this practice that deserved an answer that which makes this custom prevail is that men do not consider the great decency and fitness and the many advantages of publick Baptism which I shall therefore now briefly represent By publick Baptism I mean that which is administred in the publick Congregation and in the publick place of Worship and the fitness and advantage of this will appear if we consider some few things 1. That Baptism is our solemn admission into the Christian Church and therefore ought to be administred in the publick Congregation Baptism makes us members of the body of Christ and unites us to the society of Christians and therefore is of a publick nature and therefore ought to be administred publickly For there is no other rule I know of whereby to determine the manner and circumstances of any action but to consider the nature of it there are some actions which are more proper to be done in private others which require some publick solemnities and it is as undecent to do a publick action i. e. an action of a publick nature privately as it is to do a private action in publick Now that is certainly of a publick nature which concerns a who'e society and such is the admission of Church-members and therefore ought to be done in the presence as well as by the authority of the Church The efficacy indeed of Baptism depends upon the Institution of Christ and therefore when it is rightly administred does not lose its vertue for want of some due circumstances but it is a great fault in those who wilfully and obstinately refuse to give all Christian offices their due solemnity 2. We may consider that Baptism contains a publick profession of our faith in Christ it is a publick owning of his Religion no adult person was ever admitted to Baptism without a profession of his faith in Christ in allusion to which as Learned Men think St. Peter calls Baptism not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God The person to be baptized being examined about his faith in Christ and resolutions of obeying him Now the profession of our faith the more publick it is the more agreeable is it to the nature of Baptism and the constitution of the Christian Church which is a visible Society professing the faith of Christ and though indeed Infants who are baptized are not capable of making such a publick profession of their faith yet their Sponsors and Sureties are who undertake for their education in the Christian faith and certainly the publick Church is the most proper place for such a publick profession To baptize our Children privately looks as if we were ashamed of the Christian profession and there is not a more effectual way to root out Christianity than to destroy
and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me This is that bread which came down from heaven not as your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever Where our Saviour gives the reason why those who eat him shall live for ever because he himself shall live for ever though he must die he was to rise again into an immortal life and an eternal Kingdom as the reward of his death and sufferings and therefore this holy Feast is a certain earnest of immortality to those who feed on him and we need not indeed doubt this since it conveys the holy Spirit to us as St. Paul tells the Romans But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you But possibly some may object that all this which is attributed to the Holy Supper we receive at our Baptism the pardon of our sins the gift of the Spirit and the promise and earnest of immortality for so we are Baptized for the remission of sins and we are baptized as well as made to drink into one Spirit and those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and we are buried with Christ by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Now all this I grant to be true and therefore Baptism not the Lords Supper is our regeneration or new birth we are raised into a new life are renewed and sanctified at our Baptism and have the Holy Spirit bestowed on us as the author and principle of a new life but the continuance of this grace and the daily assistances of the Holy Spirit especially when we have grieved him and made him withdraw from us by our sins depends upon our diligent attendance at the Table of our Lord. It is not enough that a man is born into the world unless he have constant food to preserve his life and thus it is with the new creature and therefore the Supper of our Lord is Bread and Wine the stay and support of life to signifie to us that these supplies of grace which we receive at this Feast are as necessary to our Spiritual life as our daily food is to the support of a bodily life and therefore our Saviour calls himself the bread of life which came down from Heaven of which the Manna was a type and figure now we know Manna was their constant food the only Bread they had which signified that this heavenly Manna is the daily support of our spiritual life and therefore we know the ancient Fathers by our daily bread in the Lords Prayer did generally understand the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bread of God All which may convince us from the very nature and reason of the institution that frequent communione are as necessary to our spiritual growth and increase in holiness to repair the decays of our graces and to renew our strength and vigour in serving God and to procure the pardon of sin after a relapse and to call back the holy Spirit when he is withdrawn from us as bread is to keep our bodies in constant repair and did men love their souls as they do their bodies they would no more neglect the Supper of our Lord than their daily food 4. The Lords Supper is the principal part of Christian communion and therefore as necessary as the communion of the Church is to debar any persons from the Lords Table is to shut them out of the communion of the faithful and they are never restored to full communion till they are restored to the communion of this holy Feast while discipline was preserved in its glory and vigour in the ancient Church no Christian durst turn his back upon the Table of our Lord as nine parts in ten now often do indeed they could not well communicate as faithful Christian people without receiving the Lords Supper The Catechumens and Penitents were admitted to publick instructions and to such prayers as were proper for them but they were dismissed when that was done and not admitted to be present at the worship of the faithful who were in full peace and communion with the Church the principal part of which was the Holy Supper Indeed St. Paul attributes the union of Christians in one body to Christ to this holy Feast He calls the Cup the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread the communion of the body of Christ and assigns this as one reason of it for we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread From whence it is plain that we are united to each other by partaking of the same bread for we are one bread as well as one body which places Christian unity in a joynt participation of this Holy Feast This also unites us to Christ makes us his body because we all feed on his body the Church is his body as being fed and nourished with his body which both shows us how necessary the peace and unity of the Church is to give us an interest in the Sacrifice of Christ for the vertue of his Sacrifice is contained in the holy Supper and this must be celebrated in the communion of the Church and withal how essential this holy Supper is to Christian communion as uniting us all to Christ in one body For shame then let not those men cry out against Schism and Schismaticks who separate themselves from the body of Christ in that part of Christian communion which is most essential to Christianity it is a much less evil not to hear a Sermon together nay sometimes not to pray together than to joyn in all other parts of worship but to break company at the Lords Table where if ever they ought to appear as one body and one bread to set up Altar against Altar is somewhat worse is a greater and more incurable Schism than to absent our selves from the Lords Table but for my part I cannot excuse those men from being Schismaticks who live in an habitual neglect of so necessary a part of Christian communion and could the ancient discipline of the Church be revived such men should know that Christian communion in any religious offices is a priviledge which they do not deserve and which they should not have Having thus explained our obligations to frequent Communion in the holy Supper of our Lord which I judge so plain and evident that no honest impartial Inquirer can resist the evidence of them and of such great weight and moment that no